Date: Mon, 24 Jul 1995 16:37:51 -0400
From: Allan Metcalf
Subject: NEH update (lengthy)
For those who want to know about NEH funding and future, here is another
report from our observation post in Washington, the National Humanities
Alliance. It's long!
- Allan Metcalf
****************************************
20 July 1995
TO: NHA Members and Friends
FR: John Hammer and Cuc Vu
RE: Washington News Update: 1. House votes FY-96 appropriation
for NEH, NEA, and IMS
2. Senate Committee completes work
on NEH et al reauthorization
__________________________________________________________________
1. House Action - It Could Have Been Much Worse
The House approved a FY-1996 Interior Appropriations Bill (H.R.
1977) after debate spread over 5 days that includes appropriations
for the cultural agencies as follows:
Actual* Approved
(in millions) FY-95 FY-96
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) $172.0 99.5
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) 162.4 99.5
Institute of Museum Services (IMS) 28.7 21.0
Smithsonian Institution 362.7 350.4
National Gallery of Art 56.9 56.8
Woodrow Wilson International Center 8.9 5.2
National Capital Arts & Cultural Affairs 7.5 6.0
[*Figures assume that the FY95 Rescissions will be taken. The
revised rescissions bill, over which the administration and
Congressional leaders reached agreement, will reduce both NEH and
NEA by $5 million. An earlier version of the rescissions bill was
vetoed by President Clinton.]
While a 42% reduction for NEH is extraordinarily sharp and clearly
indicates that NEH and its sister agencies were singled out for
much greater reductions than most other agencies in the Interior
budget--and the bill includes the 3-year phase out contained in
the committee-passed reauthorization bill (the Goodling bill)--
there are several positive points to note:
o Although the NEH is not formally authorized, it has
survived the budget process through a floor vote in the House;
o Due to the way in which the Rules battle played out in the
House, NEH, IMS, and numerous other unauthorized programs like the
Bureau of Land Management can continue in FY-96 even if there is
not a formal reauthorization. (Unfortunately, the NEA may not go
forward in FY-96 unless the restriction is lifted through
negotiation with the Senate, completion of reauthorization, or a
change of heart on the part of the GOP leadership.)
o Supporters of the endowments in Congress (with
encouragement from many including NHA members) managed to steer
through many parliamentary and other impediments despite the
almost unanimous opposition to their retention by the GOP House
leadership.
By the time the appropriations for the endowments reached the
floor, they had already been on a long roller coaster ride. Late
last year, the GOP leaders pronounces that unauthorized programs
would not be considered by the appropriating committee (a
situation that blurred when other programs valued by the GOP
leaders turned out to be unauthorized). By Spring, Interior
appropriations subcommittee chair Ralph Regula (R-OH 16th) was
speaking of process NEH and NEA in the FY-96 legislation but
expected them to be tossed out on a point of order when introduced
on the floor due to the lack of authorization. When the bill
reached the floor, an agreement between Mr. Regula and the ranking
minority member Sidney Yates (D-Il 9th)--which could not have been
reached without GOP leadership agreement--had produced a waiver
from the Rules Committee protecting unauthorized programs from
points of order.
The floor battle began as the curtain rose late in the day on
Wednesday, July 12. Dissident GOP freshmen called for the defeat
of the rule which protected the endowments (especially NEA) from
expulsion due to lack of current authorization. All but 20 of the
Democrats joined the dissidents to bring about the first defeat of
a rule in the 104th Congress 235 to 193. While many of the
Democrats are long-time friends of the endowments, the vote seems
to have been seen as a) an opportunity to hand the GOP leaders a
defeat, and b) a possibility to reopen some of the environmental
issues decisions they opposed. Unfortunately under the revised
rule which was accepted the next day, the GOP Freshman gained new
concessions on the NEA including a phase out in only two years for
NEA and strong on-the-record pressure for negotiators with the
Senate to yield nothing on the NEA provisions. During the
discussion, Mr. Regula and Mr. Goodling both seemed to agree that
the 2-year phaseout for NEA would be adhered to by both
appropriations and authorization negotiators. The Democrats' role
in the defeat of the rule gained little or nothing in terms of
changes in environmental areas (e.g., the virtual dismantling of
the Biological Survey which is important in the implementation of
the Endangered Species Act).
The going was better after the initial defeat. The groundwork had
been well laid among GOP moderates and Democratic friends of the
endowments. Rep. Peter Torkildsen (R-MA 6th) had built a series
of "Dear Colleague" letters co-signed by a number of other GOP
and, sometimes, Democratic members calling for reasonable
appropriations. After the Appropriations Committee markup, Mr.
Torkildsen collaborated with Louise Slaughter (D-NY 28th) in a
letter signed by several others saying the endowments have already
borne major reductions and calling for firm resistance to any
further cuts.
On Monday, Cliff Stearns (R-FL 6th) came forward with another of
his often successful amendments to cut the NEA--this time by $10
million. Support for the NEA was strong and especially
bipartisan. The amendment was defeated 179 to 227.
Also debated on monday was an amendment offered by Steve Chabot
(R-OH 1st) to eliminate all funding for NEH from the bill. Again,
there was a strong, bipartisan, support for the agency from, among
others, Tillie Fowler (R-FL), Nancy Johnson (R-CT), Sheila
Jackson-Lee (D-TX 18th), Nita Lowey (D-NY 18th), Bill Martini (R-
NJ 8th), Connie Morella (R-MD-8th), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 8th), and
David Skaggs (D-CO). In speaking in opposition, Bill Goodling (R-
PA 19th) noted that the bill did not even provide the NEH with the
$134 million called for in his reauthorization bill. The vote on
the Chabot amendment was taken the following day when it was
rejected 148 to 277--a major affirmation for the NEH which has not
been the target of an up-or-down vote of this type in the 104th
Congress.
2. NEH & NEA RECEIVE BIPARTISAN SENATE SUPPORT FOR REAUTHORIZATION
On Wednesday, July 19 the Senate Committee on Labor & Human
Resources reauthorized the National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) by a strong
bipartisan vote of 12-4. The reauthorization bill (S. 856) was
co-sponsored by Senators James Jeffords (R-VT), Nancy Kassebaum
(R-KS), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Claiborne
Pell (D-RI) and Alan Simpson (R-WY). The next challenge for the
Committee will be to schedule the bill for a vote on the Senate
floor.
S. 856
S. 856 reauthorizes the endowments for five years starting in
FY96. Both the NEH and NEA will receive 5% cuts each year for
five years as follows:
FY96 FY97 FY98 FY99 FY00
NEH $160m $152m $144m $137m $130m
NEA $153m $146m $138m $131m $125m
Of the sums appropriated each fiscal year, 30% shall be reserved
for state humanities councils as partnership grants (of which 5%
will go to elementary and secondary education in the humanities),
35% for national grants, and another 35% for research and
scholarship grants. This represents an adoption of amendments
offered by Bill Frist (R-TN) which eliminated elementary and
secondary education in the humanities from the purpose of national
grants, increased partnership grants from 25% to 30%, and reduced
both national grants and research and scholarship grants from
37.5% to 35%.
S. 856 also stipulates that the endowments may not spend more than
12% of the sums for each fiscal year on administrative costs such
as rent for office space and personnel. Some of the
administrative costs are fixed and are very difficult to
reconfigure without personnel reductions. If the agencies only
receive $99.5 million as the House has agreed and as the Senate
Interior Appropriations Subcommittee may offer next week, the
endowments may well have to release more than half of their staff
in an effort to retain as much of the programs as possible. This
bill also requires the endowments to merge a number of
administrative functions. The NEH has been thinking for some time
about how to make adjustments to various budget levels. No one
doubts that there will be personnel reductions.
LABOR COMMITTEE MARKUP OF S. 856
The endowments received solid support from all of the committee's
Democrats and the handful of moderate GOP members, particularly
Jeffords. Arts and humanities advocates also picked up a few
hints from Slade Gorton (R-WA), who also has oversight of NEH
appropriations as the chairman of the Senate Interior
Appropriations Subcommittee. In his supportive comments on
Spencer Abraham's (R-MI) amendment to privatize the NEA and NEH,
Gorton also made inference to following the House appropriations
mark of $99.5 million for the endowments, which is a major turn
away from his recent discussion of zeroing out the NEH in the
Senate interior appropriations bill. Moreover, Gorton cast one of
the twelve votes to reauthorize the endowments. Gorton's support
may have been influenced by a bipartisan sign-on letter by Alan
Simpson (R-WY) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) that urged Gorton and
his Democratic colleague Robert Byrd (D-WV) to follow the Labor
Committee's funding recommendations and not make deep cuts to the
budgets of the endowments. Thirty-four members of the Senate
signed the letter, including eight Republicans--James Jeffords (R-
VT), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO), Orrin
Hatch (R-UT), Robert Bennet (R-UT), John Chaffee (R-RI), Bill
Cohen (R-ME), and Mr. Simpson.
On the other hand, Bill Frist (R-TN), who did not comment on any
of the amendments, joined Dan Coats (R-IN), John Ashcroft (R-MO),
and Spencer Abraham (R-MI) and voted against reauthorization.
Frist also supported the Abraham amendment to privatize the
agencies and the Ashcroft-Gregg amendment to reduce the budgets of
the endowments by 50% over five years. While defeat of the
Abraham and Ashcroft-Gregg amendments did not hinge on Frist's
vote, many observers believed that Frist's actions in yesterday's
markup conflicted with assurances of support for the endowments
during the development of the revised bill.
The endowments, however, still have the backing of Jeffords and
Nancy Kassebaum, although Kassebaum made very clear yesterday her
growing frustration with the arts endowment and the recent
controversy about an allegedly sexually explicit performance piece
by a gay artist at Highways, a theater and performance art space
in Los Angeles that received an NEA grant last year.
The following is a summary of the proposed amendments to S. 856.
o ABRAHAM AMENDMENT. Proposed to privatize the endowments by
reducing their budgets by 20% each year for five years,
focusing on fundraising, and changing the tax codes to
further stimulate charitable giving.
The amendment was defeated by a vote of 10-6. All seven
Democrats joined with three Republicans--Jeffords, Kassebaum,
and Gregg--to oppose the amendment.
o DODD AMENDMENT. Christopher Dodd's (D-CT) amendment
proposed to direct $150,000 for a study to assess the
feasibility of establishing a true endowment. The money will
come directly from the budgets of both the NEA and NEH.
Spencer Abraham said he would like the study to also examine
his questions about privatization.
Only Dan Coats (R-IN) opposed the amendment.
o ASHCROFT-GREGG AMENDMENT. Proposed to reduce the budgets
of the endowments by 50% over five years. Ashcroft and Gregg
argued that the proposal is more consistent with the Senate
budget resolution (to fund the endowments in FY96 at 50%
below FY95 levels) as well as the goals for deficit
reduction.
The amendment failed on a tie (8-8) vote. Jeffords was the
lone Republican to oppose the amendment.
o KENNEDY-PELL AMENDMENT. Proposed to restore seven
categories for individual grants, including jazz and dance,
which were all stripped from the Jeffords bill except
literature fellowships.
The amendment was defeated by a vote of 9-7 along party
lines.
o DEWINE AMENDMENT. Creates 10% set-aside for underserved
communities. Also changes language pertaining to underserved
communties from "preference" to "priority."
The amendment was accepted by a vote of 12-4.
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS MARKUP
Markup on NEH FY96 budget is scheduled for the week of July 24.
As mentioned above, the chairman suggested that he will follow the
House mark and appropriate $99.5 million for each endowment.
Cuc Vu
National Humanities Alliance
21 Dupont Circle, N.W. Suite 800
Washington, D.C. 20036
(202) 296-4994
Internet: cuc[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cni.org